title: One kilometer (1 km) electric solar wind sail tether produced automatically.
abstract: We produced a 1 km continuous piece of multifilament electric solar wind sail tether of μm-diameter aluminum wires using a custom made automatic tether factory. The tether comprising 90,704 bonds between 25 and 50 μm diameter wires is reeled onto a metal reel. The total mass of 1 km tether is 10 g. We reached a production rate of 70 m/24 h and a quality level of 1‰ loose bonds and 2‰ rebonded ones. We thus demonstrated that production of long electric solar wind sail tethers is possible and practical.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 64, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Henri
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Seppänen
authors.forename: Timo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rauhala
authors.forename: Sergiy
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kiprich
authors.forename: Jukka
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ukkonen
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Simonsson
authors.forename: Risto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kurppa
authors.forename: Pekka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Janhunen
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hæggström